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Things are falling apart in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that appears, in this volume especially, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Organizations are failing, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from governments, and gathering in the halls of theocrats, the coffers of corporations, the grasp of crowds. "Something is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says merchant a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were secure and strong are weakening and collapsing."

Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey

Exactly what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that animates The Rose Field, which resumes where its predecessor concluded. This is, according to many, Pullman's final foray into the elaborately built, deeply captivating world he first revealed 30 years ago, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a world whose terrain maps on to that of the real world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals appear and think and behave like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, essences in animal form; where the air are populated with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but below, vehicles are taken and tea is sipped, and older professors carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in the first volume, the prequel with which the author began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the prickly and persistent main character of the previous installments, but aged, sadder, more cautious, less sure. This limitation is amplified by her division from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.

Converging Storylines

The daemon's resolve to leave in search of that childlike part of her which she may have forgotten (an trait which he represents as her "vision"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which saw Lyra undertake a wandering trek across the continent and into the Caucasus, facing with marvel and risk on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in play, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the faith's ruling body, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister representation of strict, bureaucratic wickedness – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's family member, who faults her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of leader of the Magisterium's governing body, and is intent on using his fresh power to broaden the institution's dominium. A key character, who saved baby the heroine to refuge along a swollen Thames as an 11-year-old in the first book, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is sent to Geneva to learn more about the antagonist's intentions. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and costly rose oil which manifests in some way to be the origin of a social and financial upheaval rippling out from the region. The extract is viewed by some as a marketable product, by different parties as a scientific or spiritual miracle, and by others still – the zealous "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of darkness; an insult that must be destroyed. The question of where it comes from, what it stands for, and whether it should be removed or protected is escalating in importance.

Like His Dark Materials, our protagonist's actions, and her future, are shown to be inextricably connected with the future of the world

In The Secret Commonwealth, these plots ran largely in parallel. In this final book, they converge. Like the original series, her movements and her fate are shown to be inextricably woven with the future of the universe. Her private journey to rejoin with her soul and recover her vision becomes the key conflict in a larger war with an controlling system which, as these systems often attempt, is seeking to stifle freedom of thinking, originality and culture: all the internal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be liberated.

Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts

The story starts with the unveiling of a series of strange cracks in the makeup of the world's air: gateways that appear to give on to other worlds. An example of a opening appears to be the point of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The authority, with Delamare at its head, designates these openings as a threat to the institution's doctrine and endeavors to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to turn away from strict reason and return to intuition, yet, her belief that these sites must be preserved – that their significance and what they provide is mysteriously crucial – strengthens. "Dust, or the extract, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or whatever we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a philosophical conflict between purity and experience is prepared.

Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution

At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the